Extract from "A Midnight Thought."

While active thought unseals my eye, And midnight darkness shades the sky, Be hush'd, my soul, ye moments stay, While I rejudge the guilty day. See conscience glares, more dreadful made By silence and the awful shade! She points her poignard to my breast, And bids my justice speak the rest. Then think, my soul, while Heav'n gives breath, And antedate the stroke of death! Reflect how swift the moments fly, Nor linger, unprepar'd to die! Pensive revolve, 'ere yet too late, The scenes of an eternal state, A series of unnumber'd years Or crown'd with joys, or lost in tears. What awful hints these thoughts inspire, They chill the blood, they pall desire; They teach the soul her Heav'nly birth, And banish all the pomps on earth. Here, as in air, a bubble tost, Her worth unknown, her genius lost; At pleasure's fancy has she drove, Forgetful of her seat above! Oh! what such folly can atone? Reason dejected from her throne; Let humble penitence restore, And bid my soul to err no more. All clement thou, oh God! all just, The good man's rock, the sinner's trust; Accept the blood my Saviour shed, To save from woe this guilty head. Oh! send thy life-restoring grace, Effuse the lustre of thy face; From guilt and sorrow set me free, And guide me, till I come to thee.